Few things are sadder than tuning into your analytics, excited to check out your sales numbers... and seeing data on thousands of abandoning customers. How did it come to this?

I mean, there you are, spending countless hours of work designing, optimizing, and A/B testing your online store. You’d think it would be enough to ensure good conversion rates and steadily grow your customer base.

But it isn’t.

As you may know, over 60% of buyers leave their shopping carts without completing a purchase. And they won’t come back to complete the checkout unless you incentivize them to do so.

If you’ve ever posted anything on social media as a small brand, you know how often if feels like you’re talking to a void. Too often, no one responds. No likes, comments, retweets—you get the idea.

Not so with Instagram. No matter how small your audience, your posts probably still receive at least a few likes and comments—especially if you use relevant hashtags. And with 500 million daily active users, it’s an enticing marketing channel.

The business case for Instagram ecommerce is strong. Not only does Instagram's engagement demolish Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and LinkedIn, but, for brands, it even outperforms Facebook by a factor of ten.

There have been a lot of reports over the last 20 hours or so from Irish business owners including myself who have received an email from a company called DNS Ireland located in Dublin. On the surface their website looks convincing however this is 100% scam territory.

The email which I have produced below shows a "Liam" from DNS Ireland informing me that someone has requested the same website name as Ireland's Technology Blog but rather than a .com the person wants a .eu address. Firstly it is very unlike that any normal person would try to use our name, or your company's name like that as they would immediately have legal action taken against them as it is just too close to your own registered name, especially if you are a company. In theory anyone is free however to register this name, that is life.

Millennials are a big deal. Not only are they the largest generation since the Baby Boom, but they’re also about to enter their prime purchasing years.

By the year 2020, Millennials will spend a whopping $1.4 trillion annually - or 30% of all retail sales in the United States alone. This means that business owners either need to start thinking like Millennials now or they’re going to risk getting left behind fast.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the biggest trends that are shaping Millennial spending behaviours and the most effective strategies that you can use to build smarter and faster marketing campaigns for your business. Strategies for marketing to Millennials are changing every day, but with this set of handy tips you’ll be able to adapt quickly and keep up with your youngest and most dynamic customers.

So, let’s dive into the fastest growing Millennial marketing trends out there and discover what they could mean for your business.